Kiszla: Vikings' Adrian Peterson sure he will win NFL's MVP award

HONOLULU — Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has bad news for Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Although the results of the MVP voting won't be revealed until Super Bowl eve, Peterson predicts with 100 percent certainty that he will swipe the award from Manning's grasp and take the trophy back to Minnesota.

"I'm going to win it. I will get it," Peterson told me Saturday, as he stood in the stadium where he and Manning will square off in the Pro Bowl.

At an all-star game on the verge of extinction, Manning and Peterson have breathed life into the Pro Bowl. A year ago, both players were recovering from serious injuries and heard whispers they would never be the same again.

At a sporting event desperately in need of rivalry, the best show all week has been Peterson vs. Manning. It started Tuesday night, when the stars from the AFC and NFC gathered at a secluded resort on Oahu, then listened to an impassioned plea from Manning to raise the Pro Bowl's level of play before commissioner Roger Goodell erased this game from the league's annual schedule.

His primary mission accomplished, Manning lightened the mood with a welcoming zinger to nearly every big ego in the ballroom. And maybe Manning's best shot was taken at the Minnesota star who led the league with 2,097 yards rushing. According to several people present for the roast, Manning cracked: "Everyone should play like Adrian Peterson. The guy does everything full speed. The Pro Bowl. Promoting himself for MVP."

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Everybody laughed. Nobody laughed harder than Peterson. "I thought it was funny, man," Peterson said. "Manning is always pulling somebody's chain. This time, he got me. That's just the way he is. And I have a ton of respect for him."

What pops the humor in any joke is the kernel of truth. While Manning is a team-first guy, make no mistake. This MVP would mean at least as much, or more, than any of the previous four times he has won the award. The Indianapolis Colts cut Manning, and that hurts a veteran quarterback every bit as much as it stings a 15-year-old linebacker trimmed from the varsity roster by a high school coach.

After missing more than a year of football activity, as he recovered from a series of neck surgeries, Manning threw for 37 touchdowns and won 13 games in his first season with the Broncos. Amazing. But, if you're asking me, what Peterson did was even more phenomenal. Recovering from a knee injury that can rob a back of his explosiveness, Peterson carried the Vikings to the playoffs almost by himself.

"I'm still amazed," Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk said. "What A.P. did was incredible. Unless you've played football and had knee issues, there's no word to quantify what he did. I kept waiting and waiting for fatigue to come into his game. But, as the season went on, he actually started getting stronger. And that doesn't happen in the NFL."

There's no disputing the two most dominating personalities at the Pro Bowl. This is Peyton's Party. And A.P. keeps the party hopping. Manning has been so thoroughly running every aspect of AFC team practices that John Fox and his Denver coaching staff could have spent the week on a cruise.

Can't tell you if Peterson has been tipped off to the results or he's merely better than Nate Silver at analyzing voting trends, but I think he's dead-on with his prediction for the league's most prestigious award.

Peterson for MVP.

Manning will have to settle for comeback player of the year.

And, with any luck, neither player will be at the Pro Bowl again in 2014.

Why? Because I want to find out if Peterson is gutsy enough to guarantee he will beat Manning in the Super Bowl.

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